postmortem
by ohgoditsbriony
Summary: Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura
1. i'm sorry

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **I guess this probably isn't what it seems.

* * *

She's wearing a black pencil-skirt, plain shirt, and heels with little bows on; her hair is clipped back behind her ears, pulled back into a long ponytail, and she's scribbling frantically in her notebook. She stands opposite him, in front of the wall, and he sits with his hands placed on his lap, head tilted. Every now and again, she looks up, eyes narrowed in concentration, a slither of pink tongue poking from between her lips, but she's very careful not to look into his eyes—he sees that, even if she doesn't. He wonders, absently, if it's because he looks so very much like his little brother; and then she clicks her tongue, shuts her notebook, and goes to walk away.

She doesn't stay.

He would very much like her to.

She hesitates by the door, but he doesn't say anything—he doesn't do anything—so she walks away, and he thinks again that he'd have liked it very much if she'd stayed.


	2. but i

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **Thanks very much for the reviews! I've got most of these drabbles already written out, so I'll update pretty quickly.

* * *

The next day, she brings a guest.

He's got blue eyes and blonde hair and he calls himself Naruto—his eyes are wide and pleading. He thinks that maybe he should know this boy, but he doesn't—hasn't even met him—only knows him from pictures; there's a familiarity in the way Naruto greets him, but they're not friends—they're strangers.

He thinks, _Oh._

He asks, "Were you a friend of my brother?"

Naruto's face falls.

She puts her hand on his shoulder and looks very, _very _sad.


	3. don't

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **Thanks again for the reviews! I'm updating these drabble collections super quick, because they're just so much _fun._

* * *

She comes to sit with him one day. She brings tomatoes in a little glass bowl, and she puts them on the table in front of him expectantly; he takes one politely, because he doesn't really like tomatoes but it'd be rude of him not to. He looks at it for a little while. Then he wrinkles his nose and replaces it, because, whether he's being rude or not, he cannot bring himself to eat something he doesn't want to—even if he's certain it would make her smile.

She tilts her head.

Then, daintily, she plucks a tomato from the bowl and eats it.

"_He_ would," she says, and it means _so much._

"I am not him," he insists, and adds as an afterthought, "I apologise."

She leaves.

The bowl of tomatoes remains untouched.


	4. remember

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **Thank you for the reviews, Shippooliver, Sepsis and Hannah! These chapters are super cryptic~ ;D

* * *

He sees Kisame lounging against the wall, arms folded over his chest, eyebrows raised, grinning with all his teeth bared, and he sits down.

"They've got you locked up like a rat," Kisame whistles. "It's kinda pitiful."

"I am content."

"Why're you still here?"

"I have nowhere else I need to be."

"Is _that _what you're sayin', now?"

He breathes in.

Then, slowly, he breathes out.

"If you have only come to gloat," he says, but doesn't need to finish.

When he looks up, Kisame has gone.


	5. who i am

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **Thanks for all of the lovely reviews! Hopefully, you'll be able to piece this fic together bit by bit~

* * *

He is beginning to grow restless—he counts the cracks in the ceiling, one, two, three, and then he runs his fingers across white-padded cell walls, and then he sits with his hands clasped and thinks that _this _is what it's like to be bored. His lips quirk into a smile at that. He has never had the time to be bored, not once before, and now he is very much so—he presses his fingertips together in the shape of a triangle and looks at the lines on his palms; his life-line isn't very long. It curves in a broken line just past his thumb, and he runs a finger across it gently. Then he looks back up at the cracks in the ceiling.

When she comes, that's how she finds him.

He's sat on the floor staring up at the sky, with his hands clasped in front of him and a lonely little smile on his face.

"What are you doing?"

"I am thinking," he replies, and then he holds his hands out to her and asks sadly, "Did you know my life-line is so small?"


	6. or

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **I figured I'd post this here, too; if you've got any fanfiction requests for this fandom, drop me a PM~ :)

* * *

"_What_," the new girl hisses, beneath her breath, like she thinks he cannot hear her, "Is _wrong _with him?"

Her name is Karin.

She is brash and red and her voice is irritatingly clear.

She looks at him like she hates him—but also like she loves him.

It makes his head hurt.

"_Fix him_," Karin snarls, jabs a crimson, pointed nail in his direction, and then storms out the door, a whirl of vibrant red, anger and hurt.

He waits until she's left.

Dark eyes meet green.

"I don't know _how_," she breathes, and then she leaves too.


	7. who i was

**disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.  
**summary: **Why can't you see me? —Itachi/Sakura  
**notes: **Just to prove I'm not dead, here's an update.

* * *

"E—excuse me," Hinata says, and puts his soup down in front of him. It's steaming hot. He sweeps his elbows off the little makeshift table he has, and she gives him a plastic spoon—he's only really allowed things he can eat with a spoon at the moment, because they don't want him to have a knife. They know what he can do with it.

He nods.

"Thank you."

He tries a little bit, and he's pleasantly surprised—it's chicken and it's home-made. He looks at her. "Did you make this?"

"Y—yes."

"It is… good."

She flushes pink.

"Th—_thank you_," she practically whispers, and he smiles thinly back at her.


End file.
